Also in November 1760
3rd Frederick II’S Prussian forces defeat the Austrian army commanded by Count Leopold Joseph von Daun at the Battle of Torgau in Saxony. For both sides, the battle proves one of the costliest of the Seven Years’ War, with 16,670 Prussian and 15,897 Austrian soldiers lost in action. Frederick II (‘the Great’) himself is hurt, and follows news of the battle from a nearby church.
5th The French composer Pierre Février dies in Paris at the age of 64. Originally from Abbeville, Février moved to the French capital in 1720, where he served as organist at the church of Saint-roch. He is succeeded in the post by his pupil Claude-bénigne Balbastre, who himself goes on to enjoy great fame as a composer.
18th Three weeks after ascending the British throne, George III makes his first speech to Parliament. ‘Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton,’ he begins, before proclaiming his loyalty to his country and setting out the protection of the ‘protestant interest’ in Europe as a major British objective in the Seven Years’ War.
28th Thomas Arne’s comic opera Thomas and Sally receives its first performance at the Royal Opera House. Written in collaboration with the Irish librettist Isaac Bickerstaffe and sometimes known by the title of The Sailor’s Return, it tells the tale of Sally, a village maiden, who is saved by the morally dubious intentions of a local squire when Thomas, her sweetheart, returns from sea.
29th Rogers’ Rangers, a provincial military company attached to the British army during the French and Indian War, forces the French to surrender Fort Detroit. Assembled and trained by Major Robert Rogers, an American frontiersman, the Rangers prove highly valuable to the British both as a remarkably effective light infantry unit and for reconnaissance purposes.